1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to systems, devices, and methods for delivering a contrast medium to a treatment site within a blood vessel.
2. Related Art
Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death worldwide. Consequently, many efforts have been directed at treating cardiovascular disease. During vascular intervention procedures, guidewires or other instruments are often utilized. In order to view the relative position of the instruments during a procedure, radiopaque contrast dye is frequently used to visualize the vascular system via x-ray.
The contrast medium is generally injected through a guiding catheter using a syringe or power injector. In some cases, a relatively high volume of contrast media is required over the entire procedure, such as during the treatment of chronic total occlusions (CTOs), since the procedure can require extensive time and lesion visualization. This can cause harm to the patient's kidneys, and is therefore undesirable. In addition, contrast injections using a syringe can be quite difficult, high enough pressure to inject the highly viscous contrast media.
Some approaches for generating these pressures include manually generating the pressure, such as with a syringe, or using a large piece of equipment known as a “power injector.” Manually generating the pressure for the highly viscous fluid over the course of a procedure may become overly burdensome. Power injectors frequently include a pump and a reservoir as part of a powered, stationary system. Such systems are often bulky, expensive, and injection high volumes of contrast.
In addition, some approaches require that contrast medium be injected at two separate locations within the vascular system. For example, during the treatment of a chronic total occlusion (CTO), it may be desirable to visualize the proximal and distal cap of the CTO, perhaps even simultaneously. In this case, due to the significant expense of power injectors, it is unlikely that there would be two power injectors in the operation room. Therefore, a second contrast injection system would be useful, and this invention offers an effective and inexpensive option for such a situation.